American Nurseryman, March 2014

The 2014 Farm Bill certainly contains much to be enthusiastic about and the hard work leading up to the crafting and eventual passage of the bill has paid off To address these concerns over the course of the last four years we have worked with the agriculture committee staff of both the House and Senate as well as the administrator and staff of the USDAs National Institute of Food and Agriculture NIFA the agency that manages SCRI Through these efforts the new Farm Bill legislation includes the framework of a new grant review process for what will result in projects that meet industry priorities first and foremost but which are always grounded in sound scientific practices and approach These process changes along with additional funding and assurances that the program will survive beyond the life of this Farm Bill lead us to believe that our industry now has greater access to funding opportunities to tackle some of our greatest plant production challenges The 2014 Farm Bill certainly contains much to be enthusiastic about and the hard work leading up to the crafting and eventual passage of the bill has paid off However legislative language only gets you so far It is up to the federal agencies to interpret and implement To that point we will be working fervently with the USDA agencies Agricultural Marketing Service APHIS and National Institute of Food and Agriculture to make sure that the intent of Congress is followed through on and the gains made are properly deployed by the administrating agencies Dr Joe Bischoff is Regulatory Legislative Affairs Director for AmericanHort he can be reached at joeb@ AmericanHort org www amerinursery com American Nurseryman March 2014 13

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